Microsoft SQL Server is an application used to create
computer databases for the Microsoft Windows family of server operating systems.
It provides an environment used to generate databases that can be accessed from workstations, the web, or other
media such as a personal digital assistant (PDA).

Before installing Microsoft SQL Server 2008, make sure you
have installed all service packs on your operating system. Also install IIS:

Getting Microsoft SQL Server

In order to follow our lessons, you must have
access to a computer in which Microsoft SQL Server is installed. To start, you
must have a computer that runs an appropriate operating system. If you are just
learning, which is assumed for our lessons, you can use a Microsoft
Windows XP Professional (in this case, you must install Microsoft SQL Server
2005 Developer
Edition) or Windows Server 2003.

To make it possible for you and other students to study
databases and SQL, Microsoft made available a trial version of Microsoft SQL
Server 2005. This full version is available from the Microsoft web site. The trial version
lasts 120 days and this should be enough for you to learn as
must as possible and be able to move on, such as finding a job or starting a
business.

To get the trial edition of Microsoft SQL Server, you can go to the Microsoft
web site, do a search on "trial software" (normally, there is usually
a Trial Software link on the home page), and follow the links to locate the
trial edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition (this is a very
big file: 890.9 MB - 1050.0 MB).

Installation Steps

Introduction

If you purchased Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional,
it may have come with the SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition DVD. To install it,
put the DVD in the drive. A white window with links will come up. You can click
the link under x86 to install. If you are downloading, click the X86 Executable
link. When a dialog box comes up, click Save, locate a folder on your computer
where to save the file and click OK. The download will start. depending on your
connection speed and your computer, this may take a while.

When the download is over, click Open

On the dialog box, click Next

The InstallShield Wizard will start copying files to your hard drive. When it has
finished, click Finish. After the files have been copied, click Open.

If you have a DVD burner, from inside the SQLEVAL folder,
create a DVD that contains the Servers folder, the Tools folder, and the autorun.inf
file.

Practical
Learning: Installing MS SQL Server

Start your computer or server if necessary.
If you are using the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 DVD, put it the drive.

If you had downloaded the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Trial Software and
created a DVD of it, put it in

If you are using the DVD, click the link that leads to type of processor
your computer is using, such as x86-based operating system:

Under the Install section, click Server Components:

A message box with the end User License Agreement will be presented to
you. Read it. If you don't agree with the license, click Cancel. Otherwise,
click the I Accept check box and click Next:

On the first page of the Welcome wizard, click Next

Read the Installing Prerequisites page of the wizard and click Install:

When this phase is over, click Next:

In the next dialog box, click Next

The next page of the wizard will check the availability of the various
options that Microsoft SQL Server will need or will communicate with. When
this phase is over, click Next:

In the next page, change or accept the pieces of information: Name (this
name will not be the login name; it's just a name) and
Company. Click Next

Accept not to install any options or select the options you want and click
Next

In the next page, accept the default instance or specify one. Then click
Next

The next step allows you to specify who is doing the installation. If you
are an administrator, specify the account's password. If you have an account
that can perform an installation on the server, enter its username, its
password, and the domain it belongs to:

Otherwise, you can click the Use The Built-In System Account radio button

Click Next

On the next step, you can accept to exclusively use Windows Authentication
Mode with the first radio button. Otherwise, you can and should use this
opportunity to allow different persons to log in to this SQL Server. In this
case, you can select the second radio button and create a password for the
SQL Server Authentication, which would create and setup the sa
account:

Click Next

Accept the options in the next page of the wizard and click Next

If you click Details, a dialog box would presented to you, showing how the
server could be contacted from a browser:

To configure the server, accept or click the Install The Default
Configuration radio button and click Next

The next page of the wizard allows you to specify whether to keep in touch
with Microsoft. After making your selections, click Next

Once Setup has enough information, on the last wizard page, click Install.
The wizard will start installing all the selected components

Once the components have been installed, click Next

On the last page, click Finish

SQL Server Startup

To use SQL Server, it must start it as a service. You can start it every time you want to use.
To access the services on your computer, you can start Control Panel and open
the Administrative Tools. In the Administrative Tools, you can double-click
Services, then locate and check the status of SQL Server: